Bottom fifth work 26-years for an extra $200 bucks, EPI says

The right columns show 26 years of income gains for top fifth of U.S. wage earners.

The liberal Employment Policy Institute posted an extract from its forthcoming, “State of Working America” report, to illustrate the concentration of income growth for top wage earners. EPI calculates that between 1979 and 2005, households at the bottom fifth of the income scale have seen an average, inflation-adjusted income growth of just $200. That is not an average annual increase of $200, but rather, an increase of $200 over 26 years. By contrast, a small number of households at the top 0.1% of the income scale saw average income growth of almost $6 million over that same period.